Running from Forever
by MorePunsRequired
Summary: What 'realistically' might have happened immediately after the ending in my head. Should be consistent with canon but if it's not, then pretend it is. So, my first attempt at fanfiction (Or any real typing of writing since school) so I'd appreciate any criticism, no matter how savage (even if it's just that I over estimated the rating.)


She blinked lazily. She had been driving for a long time. Apart from a reluctant stop for food at a greasy burger joint, they hadn't stopped driving since they had left Arcadia Bay. They hadn't stopped running.

She blinked for longer this time, ignoring the blue wispiness that was blinding her.

"Pull over, Chloe. You're exhausted."

It was the first thing that Max had said at all since they had left. Chloe obeyed, rolling to a halt on the side of the forest road. The headlights contorted the trees into ominous shapes, invisible outside of the small cone of visibility. From the look of concentration, Max must have been trying to focus on on the menace of the imaginary tree monsters. It was preferable to the other fears in her mind.

"We should just stop for the night. We can't drive forever." Max had already got out of the truck to sit up on the hood. She seemed to shrink up there, hands at her knees, knees at her face, taking up as little space as she possibly could. Chloe slowly swaggered over to join her, looking somewhere between pissed off and depressed.

"I'm alright. I'm alive, aren't I?"

"Chloe..."

"I know you Caulfield, and you wouldn't beg me to drive past the Two Whales unless you knew something." A smile so faint it could have been a trick of the light crossed her lips "Too nosy, remember? Just tell me. You wouldn't hide it unless it was important."

"Please don't do this now." Chloe winced at that, but pressed on.

"I haven't heard from Joyce, from my Mom, at all Max. Please."

There was a long pause. She could see Max drawing on all the strength she was currently using to keep herself upright.

"It was in another timeline. I went to the diner, and they were holed up..." Max froze again, the memories that she had been fighting to a stalemate bubbling over. "And Warren and Frank and… Joyce. They were all there safely, but to get in I had to stop an explosion, but if I wasn't there then they might still be there and everything would have happened like if I was too late and that means that they might be… I am so, so sorry Chloe. I couldn't go back there again. I couldn't look at that. Neither could you."

"Fuck, Max." It wasn't the confirmation she had feared, but it was no more comfortable to listen to. It was enough to push her over.

There was an exceptional stillness for a long while, broken only by Chloe leaning her back against Max, and an occasional shudder as all of the memories of a person she may never meet again fell through her.

"I don't want you to think that I'm ungrateful for my life, but..."

"But?"

"But Jesus - I killed my Mom, Max. How am I supposed to live with myself knowing that I killed her?" As true as the words felt, she regretted them the second she felt Max curl up even tighter against her. There she went, being selfish again. Not giving a thought to the person who had gone through hell to save her.

"Don't say that." She said in the tiniest voice. "It was my choice. This is my fault and I need to carry that. At the lighthouse, you said so too."

"I didn't mean it like that, Max."

"So how did you mean it? I… I killed those people, Chloe. It doesn't matter that it wasn't with my own hands. I can't even apologise to their families, they wouldn't understand. And besides - it was all for you."

She could feel Chloe prickle up against her, probably about to get defensive on principle.

"Please just, please don't get mad Chloe. You're all that's left of Arcadia Bay. You're all that I've got left." Somehow her voice got even feebler "Please don't hate me."

Chloe softened up again before talking: "Look at me, Max. I don't hate you. I feel like I'm mad at you, but I'm not. I'm mad at the tornado, and I'm mad at our luck and I'm mad at the fucking world." She spun off the hood of the car to face Max "You know how fucking terrible I am at dealing with these sorts of things, and there is nothing in the world like this sort of thing." She reached to hold the hands in front of her, so cold and small, and stooped to a whisper "But there is one thing that I know, SuperMax. No matter how mad I get, I am going to be right next to you. Forever."

Max smiled, spotlighted by an oncoming car. Not warmly, or deeply, but it was something. She leaned in forward to hug Chloe as tightly as she could and let out all the emotion that she had been holing up inside since they had left that doomed town.

"It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt for a long time - I'd know. But we'll have each other." She stood up slowly. "Tonight Maxaroni, we sleep under the stars. I'll see if I've got anything warmer in the truck."

Max didn't bother to turn her head as her friend walked away. She was just content to feel a little… fuller? More human? Instead, she listened to the clack of boots on tarmac and the annoying chime of the driver door. Then she listened in horror to a deep thud and brakes squealing.

"CHLOE! Fuck, no, no, no! We were meant to be done! The storm was meant to be the end!"

"It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt for a long time... Hey!" Max pulled her tighter and tighter, even after the one in her grip started hurting, not letting go until well after the car passed.

"Not again, not still, no more, please." The chanting continued unabated.

"Max, you're as white as a sheet, and your nose... You didn't?"

"The car, Chloe, the car." Would-be death droned past on cue.

Even her blue hair seemed to sink into a frown as she slid down the front wheel. "Still?"

"Forever."


End file.
